A radio audience survey of 110 sample geographic clusters in the Santa Barbara, California, area served a twofold purpose: the construction of a demographic profile of audience types according to radio format choices, and the identification and analysis of various audience subgroups. A skip interval technique of these geographic clusters resulted in 523 in-home interviews where participants were asked their preferences of six radio formats: top forty, beautiful music, middle of the road (light rock, ballads, and news), live progressive rock, automated rock, and all news. Format choices were then analyzed according to the demographic variables sex, age, marital status, education, geographic stability, dwelling type, and residence ownership. Results indicated that persuaders and informers who use radio can use demographic distinctness to select an appropriate format for the target audience and stations with distinct audiences can predict that their programing is reaching a selected subgroup, that many subjects who named a top forty station as their favorite were past their teenage years, that nearly half of those with a four year college education indicated a preference for beautiful music and news, and that listeners of rock stations were more likely to call the station. (MAI)

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